Week 6 Story: The Freezing of Lanka
Entering into lab that day, Ravana was very angry getting
news from his guards that Sita had escaped their arms, and that Hanuman had
found his way to Lanka. He knew that Hanuman had come his city to save Sita. He
had to think quickly and figure out a way to stop Hanuman. Ravana had been
working in lab on trying to find a solution that could instantly freeze. Ravana
however wasn’t fully successful. He was able to make a solution that would
instantly freeze any substance that was injected, or introduced to the
solution, but after a minute or two it was unfreeze. One of his guards told him
he knew a man that used to put some type of herb into his iced drinks that
would stop the ice from melting and keep his drinks cold. Ravana immediately
ordered his guard to bring this substance to him at once.
The herb had finally arrived and Ravana instantly crushed it
into his solution. After the herbs had dissolved Ravana stated to the same guard
that brought him the herb, “you should have told be about this earlier”.
The guard instant froze and after a good five minutes
remained in that state. Ravana was pleasantly pleased. Now all Ravana had to do
was capture Hanuman and inject him with his solution. Hanuman was in town
disguised as a spy. One of the guard that were on the hunt for him caught him
and brought him to Ravana.
Ravana injected Hanuman with the solution without giving him
any last words. However, when Hanuman was injected he didn't turn into ice.
Nothing seemed to happen. Ravana was so confident that his solution would work,
that he sent out all his guards to go find Sita.
Hanuman had no idea what Ravana had given him but he knew he
had to escape Ravana somehow. Hanuman tried to run and escape the lab, but as
soon as he touched the door handle it froze. Confused Hanuman tried to turn the
knob but it broke off. He quickly kicked the door down as it began to freeze and
ran out the lab. Still in confusion, Hanuman set out to find Sita. He ran all
over town but noticed that has he was searching through shops, store, and
buildings everything was turning into ice; including some people he accidently
bumped into.
He finally found Sita in the park sitting alone. Sita was so
happy to see Hanuman and went to go give
him a hug. Hanuman dogged Sita and she hit the ground. Confused, Sita asked
Hanuman what he was doing. Hanuman told Sita that anything he touched would
turn to ice and he already turned half the city into ice. Knowing that Ravana
was still hunting for Sita, Hanuman told Sita they had to escape quickly. Hanuman
quickly tore off a piece of his pants and told Sita to hold it in-between their
hands and he would fly them out of Lanka.
Sita was in disappointment that Rama had not come to save
her. Sita reached to grab Hanuman’s hand and while doing so told him that Rama
will find a way to fix everything. Before Hanuman could ask her what she was
talking about she had turned into ice.
As Sita was reaching out to grab Hanuman’s hand, Hanuman didn't
see her pull the cloth from his hand and she touched him.
Ravana's lab frozen after Hanuman escaped. (Source: Daily Mail) |
Author’s Note: From the story of The Burning of Lanka, Hanuman was never
injected with a solution that would turn everything he touched into ice. In the
story, Ravana actually had ordered for his tail to be set on fire after he found out he came for Sita. Then somehow Sita knew of
this plan and prayed to the Fire that he would not feel the heat. Hanuman only felt a
cooling sensation when his tail was set on fire. This story was twisted to have
Hanuman basically do the opposite of the actual story. Sita was also not necessarily
in hiding and Hanuman didn't find her in a park. He did however find her
eventually as he did in the original story and tried to convince her to flea
with him. However in both stories, Sita only wanted to be saved by Rama. The
ending in this story was left in suspicion of Sita being frozen and Hanuman not
having a way to take her with him. I decided to keep the basic story line the
same of Hanuman trying to save Sita, but her not wanting to leave with him. I
did however change the setting to a modern day setting, some of the locations
of the events, and the biggest thing of all, Hanuman being able to freeze everything
instead of setting it on fire.
Bibliography: PDE Ramayana - The Burning of Lanka
Hey Jesika! I liked the way you added that twist about Ravana going into the lab and making a substance to freeze things, and then adding the other twist with Hanuman and his ability to freeze things instead of being frozen by the substance. The first twist gave the story a sort of “evil scientist” vibe and that second twist gave the story a bit of a “superpower/superhero” vibe, both of which I enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteHi Jesika!
ReplyDeleteI loved the fire-to-ice switcheroo in your story, and the open-ended ambiguity you left the reader with was also refreshing (though suspenseful lol). If only Sita wanted to save herself as much as she wished for Rama to appear and fix her problems. I love the picture you included- it really adds to the reading experience. I also appreciated the moral with Ravana- his over-confidence was the reason behind his failure in this re-telling. Thanks for sharing!
Jesika, this is such a creative switch to the original story! I think it would be interesting to see more details about Hanuman's escape so that we can see the extent of his new powers to freeze whatever he touches. Maybe you could include a part in the scene where Ravana's guards try to jump on Hanuman to stop him from running away and they all freeze and break once they fall to the floor!
ReplyDelete